So, a few months back, my 2 year old son decided that he only like bread and rice. I tried everything to get him to eat his meals. Finally, I used a bit of psychology with him. I started with just broccoli and made it into kind of a Popeye type vegetable. My 4 year old helped me as well.
Check kids' muscles after they eat the healthy food:
I would eat broccoli and then feel my muscles. They got bigger. So, did my daughter's. Then, I checked to see how high Isabella could jump and ... WOW, she could amazingly jump higher AFTER she ate the broccoli.
This could mean one thing: Broccoli has magical powers!
Check to see how high they can jump
Now, when my son is eating, I make a really big deal about his big muscles and after he has finished eating, we do jumping exercises. When I am really desperate, I give him broccoli and have him jump right after. I continue this the whole meal time. Ideally, I want to wait for the jumping, as it can get too exciting and over-ride meal-time.
Involve friends:
When my 4 year old's friends come and play over lunch-time, they always will eat their vegetables for me. I have jumping games during or after meal-time. I play games to see who eats the most vegetables (and insist that they are the strongest afterwards).
Still not working? Try pancakes.
Another easy way to get them to eat their vegetables, is to blend up a variety of vegetables into a pancake mix. These make great snacks too. I make them in bulk and freeze them into individual portions in ziplocks.
Please share!!
Please do share what you have done to get your kids to eat their food. I'd love to know! There are still days that I struggle!
Great ideas! Sounds like it would take a lot of energy, though.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I had my girls drinking a very thick vegetable juice from the time they were around 4 months old. I would have them drink it directly from my glass, holding tissue both under their chins and on the side of the glass to catch all the spill. But that got them used to it from very early. Then later when they weren't wanting to drink it, I would have them drink a little and then almost in a panicky voice tell them "Argh, don't drink it all! I want some! Leave some for me!" Usually they will finish it without leaving any for me. And I am amazed at how much the girls love this thick, green veggie juice that I mix up.
As for other veggies, I had a big battle of stubborness with each girl around age 1. With my older one, the battle lasted 10 minutes with me saying "Eat one bite!" and her screaming and fighting me. For the younger one it lastd 3 hours with a nap in the middle of it since she cried herself to sleep in the middle of the battle. However, after that I can say that I have almost never had any problem with getting my girls to eat just one bite of something. Then if they like it, they can eat more, if not, I won't force it. But that little battle has saved me so much time and energy and made meal times very easy.
Yes, I agree. It is impossible to force it. I can reason with my 4 yaer old and offer rewards, etc., but the 2 year old is a tough one. I like the juice idea. We make super smoothies and they are either a hit or a miss. Fruit and veggie juices sound easy and effective! Thank you for sharing!
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